CAMPAIGN 2012

Fact Checkers Huddle Ahead of Presidential Debates

The national media's major fact-checking organizations will huddle this week to predict which facts President Obama and GOP candidate Mitt Romney are likely to spin during their first presidential debate Oct. 3, according to ABC News.

Politifact, FactCheck.org, The Washington Post’s Fact Checker blog and the Associated Press will forecast these “debate deceptions” during a panel at the Press Club in Washington on Wednesday, ABC reports.

Glen Kessler, who writes the Post’s Fact Checker blog, told ABC that Romney’s biggest questionable claim is that Obama has “apologized for America,” while Obama’s is saying that vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan’s Medicare plan will make seniors “pay nearly $6,400 more for Medicare than they do today.”

If the past 15 months of campaigning is any indication, viewers will likely see several falsehoods repeated during the debates. Obama has already chalked up six “pants on fire” ratings from Politifact; Romney has scored 10 “4 Pinocchio” ratings from the Post Fact Checker.